PROJECTS BUDGET UP FOR REVIEW

One way to grasp the size of Palm Beach County's 1987-88 budget is to calculate how much time commissioners spent reviewing it last week: one second for every $5,000 in proposed spending.

That's one second for every $5,000 used to pay lifeguards and firefighters, clean beaches and baseball diamonds, maintain roads and treat sewage -- a total of $379 million in the operating budget.

On Monday, commissioners begin reviewing the capital improvements budget, which accounts for another $455 million. A day and a half have been set aside for this purpose.

As proposed by County Administrator Jan Winters, the budget totals $933 million.

Final approval of the budget is still two months away, but commissioners so far have had few complaints.

They didn't like the idea of closing a fire station west of Lantana to save $450,000 because doing so would increase the emergency response time in two neighborhoods.

Commissioners accordingly ordered Chief Herman Brice to try to arrange alternate coverage from the town of Lantana before closing Station 44. They also told him to work on similar arrangements for enclaves of county land inside Delray Beach's city limits.

Commissioners also objected to staff suggestions to terminate the county's support of beach maintenance projects in Jupiter and Boca Raton.

Each year the county gives Boca Raton and the Jupiter Inlet District $75,000 apiece to help pay the cost of pumping sand across the mouth of inlets. Without this pumping, beaches south of the inlets tend to wash away.

Budget chief Dave Wood had proposed cutting the aid, arguing that the county should not be so generous to recipients with tax sources of their own to exploit.

But Commissioners Karen Marcus and Dorothy Wilken reasoned that both projects benefit all county residents, not only those who live in Boca Raton or the inlet district. They pledged to seek other sources of money in the capital budget.

Commissioner Carol Roberts balked at giving $750,000 to the new countywide Planning Council, whose budget officials admitted was only an informed guess at the council's likely needs.

The commission decided to let the item pass with the understanding that a more detailed proposal would be submitted later.

Commissioners temporarily ducked what could be the most bitterly contested issue: how much to spend on their staff, travel and other expenses.

Individual commissioners' budgets vary widely, from $100,000 in Roberts' case to almost $217,000 in Wilkens'.

Commissioner Ken Adams has proposed setting a limit for all commissioners. Three commissioners are interested in the idea, but Wilken -- who might be called upon to cut her budget -- has promised to fight it.

A final decision was postponed until budget officials have had a chance to meet with each commissioner and suggest ways of drafting budgets more uniformly.

Commissioners also decided to divest themselves of the responsibility for drafting budgets for satellite courthouses. Three commissioners -- Marcus, Wilken and Ken Adams -- would be affected.

The next phase of budget review will center on capital improvements.

Nearly a third of the budget -- $138 million -- is planned for roads. Roberts said last week she would use the occasion to encourage the staff to spend money "not only judiciously but rapidly."

In the past, Roberts said, the county has not pushed hard enough to complete budgeted road projects.

"It's time we sat on our engineering department," Roberts said. "The right hand doesn't seem to know what the left hand is doing."

Other highlights of the capital budget:

-- $28 million for the ongoing terminal construction project.

-- $14 million for improvements to the South County Regional Park.

-- $10 million for construction of a new South County Courthouse.

-- $6 million for new CoTran buses.

-- $4.1 million to widen Boynton Beach Boulevard west of Congress Avenue.

-- $4.5 million for improvements to Okeeheelee Park.

-- $3.4 million in library expansion.

-- $2.6 million for right of way acquisition and improvements to Old Dixie Highway in Boca Raton.

-- $2.5 million for improvements to John Prince Park.

The budget also includes $5 million to pay for design of a new courthouse in West Palm Beach and another $1.8 million for design of a new jail. These two projects and others involving criminal justice needs are expected to cost $300 million over the next five years.

Only a tiny fraction of that amount is presently available -- a situation that likely will force officials to ask for a sales tax increase in the fall.